CAIRO, November 16. /TASS/. Militants of the Palestinian radical movement Hamas have destroyed over 30 Israeli combat vehicles in the past two days of battles in the Gaza Strip, Hamas Senior Representative Osama Hamdan said on Thursday.

"Over the past two days, supporters of the movement have been able to knock out 33 military vehicles of the occupational army in armed clashes in Gaza," the Al Hadath television channel quoted Hamdan as saying.

The Hamas senior representative called the Israeli army’s assault on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital a war crime and put the blame "for the crimes against civilians in the [Gaza] Strip, including at Al-Shifa Hospital, on the Israeli government and the Biden administration."

The Hamas senior representative reiterated that the Israeli military "itself brought weapons to the hospital to show them off as guns allegedly belonging to the Hamas military wing."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian Hamas movement staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and began delivering missile strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes also took place on the West Bank of the Jordan River.

IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on October 27 that Israel was expanding its ground military operation in the Gaza Strip.